Orange leader seeks public soccer fields from pro team

Orange County residents could have more soccer fields on which to play, courtesy of Orlando's professional team, if Commissioner Jennifer Thompson gets her way.

Thompson on Monday proposed that Orlando City Soccer kick in $1.5 million for community soccer fields as part of a plan to build an $85 million soccer-specific stadium for the team in downtown Orlando. The team is seeking $20 million in county tourist taxes to help pay for it.

Orange parks officials say $1.5 million could cover the costs of three fields, including lighting, irrigation, restrooms and parking. Currently, Orange's park system includes 17 fields, nine of which have lights.

The request comes just days after Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer and county Mayor Teresa Jacobs agreed to use bed-tax revenues fora broader venues and tourism-marketing package worth $94.5 million.

Jacobs is on vacation and had not yet seen the proposal, an official said. Orlando City Soccer team representatives declined to comment.

The overall deal requires more negotiations, and final approval from city and county elected leaders.

The soccer stadium is easily the most controversial part of the proposal, which also includes: an added $25 million to complete the $503 million Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts; $12 million for added improvements to the $191 million Citrus Bowl renovation plan; and $27.5 million more for tourism marketing.

Thompsonmade her request in a memo sent out Monday and declined further comment. She hinted at the idea last week, when she complained about the scarcity of local soccer fields, especially for her own constituentsin southeast Orange.

Bringing a Major League Soccer team here, which Orlando City says a new stadium would do, would only increase the sport's local popularity and pump up demand for local fields, she said.

"On any given weekend, most of our fields are being utilized for league play, and are not available for the general public," Thompson wrote in the memo to commissioners and Jacobs on Monday.

Orlando City Soccer is seeking $20 million in county tourist taxes toward the stadium's $85 million price tag. The team is offering $30 million in cash toward the project, and like the Magic, would also cover construction cost overruns.

The city of Orlando is pledging $20 million, with $15 million in land and another $5 million in tax breaks on construction materials.

Another $15 million would come from other sources, including possible funds from other local governments, such as Apopka and Osceola and Seminole counties. Seminole commissioners are set to take up the funding issue today, records show.

Thompson's memo does not outline where she would want the new fields to go. It says only that the team's money should go into a fund that "be used exclusively to build future multi-purpose recreation fields throughout Orange County."

Thompson, a Republican who faces re-election to a second term next year, wants the funds within three years of the MLS stadium opening, which team officials say could be as early as 2015.

Democrat Sean Ashby, who plans to run against Thompson in 2014, said new parks in southeast Orange are "long overdue." But, he said, "if the owners of Orlando City are able to afford additional money out of pocket, it should be used to build the stadium, and not [come] out of tax coffers."

In 2007,the Orlando Magic agreed to build five community gyms when it sought public funding for a new arena in the $1.1 billion 2007 venue deal.

At the urging of former commissioners Mildred Fernandez and Bill Segal, the gyms were part of the final agreement in which $270 million in county tourist taxes helped build the new Amway Center. The eventual construction cost of the arena came to $487 million.